STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS had somewhat reversed that trend by demonstrating the box office potential of more family-friendly sf.

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Lucas was worried ANH getting a G rating would make the movie look uncool to teens, so he put in the burned bodies of Luke's uncle and aunt to get a PG rating.

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And maybe the severed arm in the cantina scene?

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I heard one story that Lucas wanted the PG rating so as to attract teens and adults, but got it when at a preview showing, a young child cried when Darth Vader choked the captain of the rebel ship to death. An MPAA official on hand supposedly said, "You got your PG rating, George".

Lucas was worried ANH getting a G rating would make the movie look uncool to teens, so he put in the burned bodies of Luke's uncle and aunt to get a PG rating.

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And maybe the severed arm in the cantina scene?

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I heard one story that Lucas wanted the PG rating so as to attract teens and adults, but got it when at a preview showing, a young child cried when Darth Vader choked the captain of the rebel ship to death. An MPAA official on hand supposedly said, "You got your PG rating, George".

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Sounds fishy. The MPAA does their own screenings and doesn't go to theaters to do it.

I don't have the book in front of me, but I believe J.W. Rinzler's The Making of Star Wars says the rating was the studio's decision (Fox). It was them, not Lucas, that ensured the PG-rating from the MPAA. Anyone who has the book care to check?

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That's right, Alan Ladd Jr. and the studio took the lead on that, not surprising since it was more marketing than a filmmaking issue. The story in the book is that the MPAA issued a G in a close vote. The studio requested a reconsideration for a PG. The Star Wars publicist, Charles Lippincott, saw a young boy at the preview screening start to cry when Vader choked the ship captain and felt that a PG was really warranted. Lippincott knew a woman who was on the MPAA rating board, and she told him that she and another woman had wanted a PG but some of the male members hadn't really paid attention to the movie or had fallen asleep. After the review, the PG was granted.

I think the better question is "why would anyone expect TMP to get a PG rating?"

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Well, you've got a horrific transporter accident, and you've got a crewwoman from a race so sexually overpowering that she had to take an oath of celibacy just to be allowed to serve with humans. And you've got a robot duplicate of said crewwoman who initially appears buck naked in the shower.

And let's not forget, the Director's Edition is rated PG. It was always kind of a borderline case.

G: Everyone can see it
PG: Everyone can see it, might want to go with your kids
R: Kids shouldn't see this, but it's up to you
X: Bewbies

Now
G: This is a Disney movie
PG: This is a movie your older kids want to see.
PG-13: This is a movie your older kids want to see and the bare minimum of what would be funny to an adult
R: This movie has action
NC-17: Bewbies
X: Vintage bewbies

IMHO, the introduction of the PG-13 rating in 1984 shifted the PG rating closer to G.

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Indeed... I would amend Squiggy's chart above to

G: This is for kids up to age five.
PG: this is a Disney/ family movie.
PG-13: This is 90% of all movies you will see, and runs the gambit from family fare to dirty comedy, to hard core action.
R: Lots of blood, excessive cursing, male nudity, the whole thing is about sex.
NC-17: art house sex movie, European sex movie, anything dealing with a graphic and frank look at homosexuality, excessive male nudity, political rating for a movie the MPAA did not like.

The transporter accident isn't horrific as portrayed. It's funhouse mirror stuff with sparkles and an admittedly scary sound.
Sure, Ilia claims she has an oath of celibacy but there's no sign her Deltan sexuality-know to-us-only-by materials-outside the film has any affect on anyone in the theatrical cut. Hell, you can't see her in the shower as anything but a blurry silhouette.

For 1979 that has G written all over it. The Black Hole, with its ominous Maximillian and its spinning blades, Durant's murder by same (even if we don't see it), and images of the zombified Cygnus crew are more obviously reasons for the PG rating it got. It's more viscerally frightening than TMP, which expresses almost all of its violence via lightning bolts and sparkles.

Mmmmm. I thought that scene was in my Lincoln Enterprises version of the script. Kirk and Alexandra are swimming when Kirk gets the message about the approach of the cloud entity and the destruction of the Klingon ships. My copy is packed away.

I also recall the former poster, The God-Thing, mentioning/remembering it - which makes me wonder, now, if that the scene was also in Roddenberry's lost/unpublished novel? But I certainly haven't read "The God-Thing".

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Just read that draft of the script. Yep, she's there in the swimming scene. She also works for Nogura. She bites it in the transporter. Oh, and Kirk says he was going to ask her to marry him...but he fails to mention her again after the accident.

Just read that draft of the script. Yep, she's there in the swimming scene. She also works for Nogura. She bites it in the transporter. Oh, and Kirk says he was going to ask her to marry him...but he fails to mention her again after the accident.

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Whew. I thought I was losing it. I assumed that the Lincoln Enterprises version of the "In Thy Image" script, featuring Alexandra, was the most commonly circulated one.

Yes, "as portrayed." That's my whole point. There is content in this movie that potentially could've been considerably more graphic, but that got severely toned down in order to get a G. On paper, there's a lot about the idea that sounds PG, but it had to be underplayed in the execution, especially where Deltan sexuality is concerned. Deltans are an R-rated concept forced into a G-rated movie, and that's always felt incongruous to me.

And one more time: The Director's Edition is rated PG. And the only reason for that change is because of tighter editing and a more intense sound mix in sequences like V'Ger's plasma bolt attack on the Enterprise -- or perhaps simply because the 2001 MPAA panel had slightly different standards than the 1979 one. Like I said, it was a borderline case all along. It only took the tiniest changes to push it over the line into PG.

How are Deltans and "R" rated concept? Their notions of sex and marriage are about equal to the Betazed's ideas of sex and marriage. The relationship between Troi and Riker was synonymous with that of Decker and Ilia's and Troi was toned down as Ilia was I guess.

Yes, "as portrayed." That's my whole point. There is content in this movie that potentially could've been considerably more graphic, but that got severely toned down in order to get a G. On paper, there's a lot about the idea that sounds PG, but it had to be underplayed in the execution, especially where Deltan sexuality is concerned. Deltans are an R-rated concept forced into a G-rated movie, and that's always felt incongruous to me.

And one more time: The Director's Edition is rated PG. And the only reason for that change is because of tighter editing and a more intense sound mix in sequences like V'Ger's plasma bolt attack on the Enterprise -- or perhaps simply because the 2001 MPAA panel had slightly different standards than the 1979 one. Like I said, it was a borderline case all along. It only took the tiniest changes to push it over the line into PG.

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The new sound for the plasma bolt in the DE is one of the issues I have with it. It lost its threatening feel to me. The original sound had a very un-nerving sound to me.

Most stations played it in early prime time, five nights per week. How is that not targeting that demographic?

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I only have anecdotal evidence to offer, considering that I'm Generation-X and watched it on UHF in reruns in the 70s. My dad worked long enough hours that he was not home to watch it at the 5PM or so slot that it was in. My mom was busy cooking dinner. It was therefore not "appointment television" in this household. It was a show that nerdy boys watched after the afternoon cartoons were over and before sitting down at the dinner table. If the rest of the family were aware of Star Trek, it was more through the indirect influence of those in the household who made it part of their ritual to watch it.

What constituted an PG in 2001 isn't the same as in 1979, and thus isn't an apt comparison. One could argue that the creation of the PG-13 rating effectively caused the standard "PG" to be nudged down to cover things that previously would have been G. Only the MPAA knows for sure.